{"id":281485,"date":"2026-02-05T04:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T04:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/281485\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T04:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T04:30:11","slug":"snooker-great-john-virgo-dies-aged-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/281485\/","title":{"rendered":"Snooker great John Virgo dies aged 79"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Snooker great John Virgo has died at the age of 79, World Snooker Tour has announced.<\/p>\n<p>Virgo, who won the UK Championship in 1979, enjoyed a long and storied career but was perhaps best known for his work as a broadcaster.<\/p>\n<p>He was an established part of the BBC\u2019s snooker coverage as a commentator, famous for his catchphrase of \u2018Where\u2019s the cue ball going?\u2019.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Everyone at World Snooker Tour is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of legendary snooker player and broadcaster John Virgo, aged 79.<\/p>\n<p>Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>Rest in peace, JV. \u2764\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uaxCQGzQpv\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/uaxCQGzQpv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WST (@WeAreWST) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WeAreWST\/status\/2018977454920970729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Virgo was also well known for his role on the 1990s snooker show Big Break and was a regular on the exhibition circuit with his vast array of trick shots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone at World Snooker Tour is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of legendary snooker player and broadcaster John Virgo, aged 79,\u201d a WST statement read.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur thoughts are with his family and loved ones. Rest in peace, JV.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Snooker great John Virgo has died at the age of 79, World Snooker Tour has announced. Virgo, who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-281485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}